A photo of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s front page circulated this week following the attack on its office.
The image claimed the magazine was hiring six new cartoonists. It read: “Urgent Recherche 6 Dessinateurs” (Urgent, searching for six cartoonists). Twelve people were killed in the Jan. 7 attack.
But, the photo isn’t from Charlie Hebdo‘s office. It came from a satirical TV show.
Charlie Hebdo is expected to publish million copies of its issue next week, and organizations including Google and the Guardian Media Group said they are donating money to the magazine.
Talking Points Memo reported that the fake cover came from a satirical French comedy show called Les Guignols de l’Info (roughly translated to the Puppets of Info.) Les Guignols de L’Info showed the image in a Jan. 9 episode, according to BuzzFeed.
The episode is available on Canal Plus’s website. Watch it below.
Les Guignols de l’Info also posted the image on its Twitter with a note saying “Ouf, l’esprit de Charlie n’est pas mort,” which translates to “Whew, the spirit of Charlie isn’t dead.”
According to Mediaite, the fake cover gained attention after Reuters European editor Pierre Briançon posted it on Twitter.
Briançon appears to have deleted his tweet of the cover. Briançon confirmed via e-mail to IMediaEthics that he tweeted it and explained more:
“Yes, sorry I tweeted it. By the time I realised it was a (very realistic) satire of the satire and pulled it off, it had gone viral. I probably should have tweeted a retraction/apology. No excuse here, day had been a bit hectic. Good lesson for me though.”
The real cover shows a cartoon of Muhammad holding a sign reading “Je Suis Charlie,” according to France’s Liberation. The headline says “Tout est pardonne.”
Liberation noted in its news report about the cover image that Charlie Hebdo held its meetings for the next edition in Liberation’s office.See it below
The magazine confirmed its publication of images of Muhammad, Reuters reported. Charlie Hebdo lawyer Richard Malka said, “we will not give in,” during an interview with France Info radio, as reported on by Reuters. “The spirit of ‘I am Charlie’ means the right to blaspheme.”
Read all of iMediaEthics’ coverage of Charlie Hebdo.
UPDATED:1/13/2015 12:16 PM EST Added translations